While we might think of the writing process as a newer concept, or at least a methodology that was developed in the last 50-100 years, its origins can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans, who taught rhetoric including foundations and elements we associate with the writing process today. It was not until 1947 that the "writing process" was mentioned in literature. Day first presented a seven step writing process in an article published that year. From then on, scholars and educators began to think writing as a process that could be carried out by steps, rather than only a final writing piece presented to others. Later a book edited by Cowley in 1958 introduced a description of a four-stage writing process. In 1965, Rohman introduced a simple model 3-step model: prewrite -> write -> rewrite. Up until this point, writing in school had primarily been about literature or the reading students were doing. In the 1970's, teachers, due in part to the influence of the San Francisco Bay Area Writing Project, began to develop intentional pedagogy focused on the teaching of writing -- in other words, writing became the focus of instruction itself and, in fact, a discipline. A major tenant of this evolution was the focus on the writing process, hence the "process approach" to teaching writing was coined, and it "emphasized a balance in instruction between writing process and products" (p. 277). The teachers believes strongly in pairing how writing is taught with how actual writing is carried out -- they advocated for this perspective as real-life writing, which should then also be a major goal of teaching writing-- not only teach students to prepare for writing tests, but also for authentic writing, writing for real audiences.
In the 1980s, the process approach became the primary paradigm and many schools and districts used it as a golden standard. However, the problem was many textbooks translated it into a linear and formulaic model of “Prewrite, write, and rewrite”. However, Brozick pointed out that writing is more dynamic and prone to many factors such as purposes, audiences, and types of writing. Until the advent of cognitive research, most practitioners and researchers began to see the writing process as “recursive” and more complex instead of “linear”, individualized and not in a fixed order. As such, writing teachers need to be aware ofstudents’ individual differences and try to focus on what kinds of scaffolding or techniques students need to be taught instead of assuming that all students should follow the same process, either linear or recursive. With that said, the basic approach to the writing process serves as an important beginning point, especially for younger and less experienced writers.
In 1992, NCTE validated and qualified the writing process in an important way: "Students are expected to use writing process elements strategically" (p. 278). In other words, rather than follow a lockstep process, students should be taught to use the process method strategically to achieve the best results with their writing. Illustrating this point further, Goldstein and Carr (1996), authors of a summary report of the NAEP, described the writing process as an approach in which writers make multiple decisions, so that "process writing" refers to a broad range of strategies that include prewriting and problem-solving activities. These strategies also serve as process-oriented approaches to teaching writing.
To sum up, the focus of the “process approach” to teaching writing should be one that introduces students to the best practices approach,but also teaches students a series of problem-solving skills, including self-regulation, searching prior knowledge, goal setting and others, in order to help them form abilities to address a writing task successfully based on their own process development, cognition, and experiences, but also allows them to reach for additional resources and grow further as needed.
A Historical Overview of the Writing Process
While we might think of the writing process as a newer concept, or at least a methodology that was developed in the last 50-100 years, its origins can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans, who taught rhetoric including foundations and elements we associate with the writing process today. It was not until 1947 that the "writing process" was mentioned in literature. Day first presented a seven step writing process in an article published that year. From then on, scholars and educators began to think writing as a process that could be carried out by steps, rather than only a final writing piece presented to others. Later a book edited by Cowley in 1958 introduced a description of a four-stage writing process. In 1965, Rohman introduced a simple model 3-step model: prewrite -> write -> rewrite. Up until this point, writing in school had primarily been about literature or the reading students were doing. In the 1970's, teachers, due in part to the influence of the San Francisco Bay Area Writing Project, began to develop intentional pedagogy focused on the teaching of writing -- in other words, writing became the focus of instruction itself and, in fact, a discipline. A major tenant of this evolution was the focus on the writing process, hence the "process approach" to teaching writing was coined, and it "emphasized a balance in instruction between writing process and products" (p. 277). The teachers believes strongly in pairing how writing is taught with how actual writing is carried out -- they advocated for this perspective as real-life writing, which should then also be a major goal of teaching writing-- not only teach students to prepare for writing tests, but also for authentic writing, writing for real audiences.
In the 1980s, the process approach became the primary paradigm and many schools and districts used it as a golden standard. However, the problem was many textbooks translated it into a linear and formulaic model of “Prewrite, write, and rewrite”. However, Brozick pointed out that writing is more dynamic and prone to many factors such as purposes, audiences, and types of writing. Until the advent of cognitive research, most practitioners and researchers began to see the writing process as “recursive” and more complex instead of “linear”, individualized and not in a fixed order. As such, writing teachers need to be aware of students’ individual differences and try to focus on what kinds of scaffolding or techniques students need to be taught instead of assuming that all students should follow the same process, either linear or recursive. With that said, the basic approach to the writing process serves as an important beginning point, especially for younger and less experienced writers.
In 1992, NCTE validated and qualified the writing process in an important way: "Students are expected to use writing process elements strategically" (p. 278). In other words, rather than follow a lockstep process, students should be taught to use the process method strategically to achieve the best results with their writing. Illustrating this point further, Goldstein and Carr (1996), authors of a summary report of the NAEP, described the writing process as an approach in which writers make multiple decisions, so that "process writing" refers to a broad range of strategies that include prewriting and problem-solving activities. These strategies also serve as process-oriented approaches to teaching writing.
To sum up, the focus of the “process approach” to teaching writing should be one that introduces students to the best practices approach, but also teaches students a series of problem-solving skills, including self-regulation, searching prior knowledge, goal setting and others, in order to help them form abilities to address a writing task successfully based on their own process development, cognition, and experiences, but also allows them to reach for additional resources and grow further as needed.
(Revisions: Dr. Young)